


Secrets

by dominospice



Series: Sonic: Revolution & Reconstruction [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, M/M, Ow my emotions, Wow thats sad, amy literally keeps the entire resistance together i swear, emotional breakdown, espilver, espio loses his shit, gadgets still doing that thing except we dont get to see his side of it, i rewrote this entire plot like six times please, its gonna be a happy ending i promise ;w;, oh boy lore, oh hey plot connections cool, silver is still struggling, the chaotix are a family change my mind, theres less funny tags for this one but ill try, time travel low key sucks yo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25319434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dominospice/pseuds/dominospice
Summary: It's been pretty obvious that Silver is starting to crack under pressure. Let's see how that goes.
Relationships: Amy Rose & Silver the Hedgehog, Espio the Chameleon/Silver the Hedgehog
Series: Sonic: Revolution & Reconstruction [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809625
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	1. Revealed

**Author's Note:**

> hello and welcome to redemption chapter 3: silver and espio perspective. this fic does that. it's a mix of Redemption's story and what happens in between with these two. it could, in theory, be read on its own, but the fics are in order for a reason
> 
> my braincells have once again left me, this fic is waaaaaay more angst than anything remotely close to fluff. shorter chapters, too, but whatever.
> 
> thank you to the two of you (you know who you are) that allowed for the small infidget quirk reference in this chapter because i felt like it
> 
> insert gadget broom
> 
> goodnight

Just as his plans of making his own life better for once had finally been put into place, they were torn to pieces. Literally only weeks after they agreed on it, the war began. Now, a year later, it had never actually come to happen.

Silver had only told Venus about the secret out of necessity. Not even the other two members of the household he was moving into knew the full story; only that Silver was joining the Chaotix and would be moving in with them.

It was obvious Venus had some secrets of his own, so Silver just had to hope that he would keep quiet about the whole thing. And he did, not once did he mention it to anyone else. That didn’t fix Silver’s slowly degrading mindset, though.

As was readily apparent since the war had even started, Silver had been focusing all of his attention on taking care of his friends and soldiers, to a point where he had started to ignore his own health, much less what he had with Espio. And because no one beside Venus knew, no one could remind him to pay attention to his boyfriend and everything else.

Not that Silver would be listening, obviously.

They had sort of argued a few times about it, but it never got as bad as it had in the past few months. Silver had been keeping an eye on Gadget’s strange behavior for a bit, and there must have been something about the fact that Gadget specifically was hiding something that was getting to Silver more than usual.

About three months after that whole ordeal started, the worst fight happened.

Espio had pushed a little too hard about Silver needing to spend more time focusing on his friends (and him, boyfriends are important too, remember?) and Silver had been on the edge of losing his temper entirely. Espio decided to go out for a little while, perhaps to go meditate and clear his mind a bit. He hated to be angry at Silver, but the hedgehog was going crazy with stress, and had been for several months. No matter what Espio tried, Silver still just seemed trapped by whatever made him think he had to do this to himself.

Then… Espio ran across the one thing that would destroy any chance of them being calm for Chaos knows how long.

Gadget the Wolf and Infinite.

He had arrived in Mystic Jungle not too long before, and he could hear them running around for quite a while before he actually saw either of them.

And what he saw was not quite what he expected.

Gadget had been acting a bit weird, sure, but Espio never would have guessed it was because of Infinite. The jackal was supposed to be dead. And yet, there they were, tangled up in a wire grapple (that wasn’t Gadget’s, from what he could see), and not trying to kill each other. From the looks (and sounds) of it, they had been playing a game.

The branch above them, the only thing keeping them from falling, was starting to bend. A low creak sounded through the trees, and as expected, the branch snapped. The pair tumbled to the ground, Gadget almost immediately getting to his feet, but Infinite remained motionless on the ground.

It was definitely a secret that no one could know about, them being together. But now the poor wolf was going to have a full on panic attack because he didn’t know what to do on his own.

As far as what Espio could do by himself, there wasn’t much. If he could get Silver here, the jackal might be okay. 

The purple chameleon sighed, eyeing the pair of canines sadly. He didn’t want to reveal the secret before Gadget was ready, but there wasn’t much of a choice if he was going to help.

Silver was bound to find out (probably on accident) at some point anyway, so it would probably be better if there was someone else there to mediate, rather than leave it up to chance.

This was a bad idea no matter what, but his partner was already upset, so it couldn’t get too much worse... right?

It could.

And it did.

Gadget whirled around as soon as he heard the bushes rustling behind him. He stepped back a bit, almost protectively standing over the unconscious jackal’s body.

Espio stepped out of the shadows, uncloaking as he approached.

“Relax. It’s just me, no one else.” he stated, holding his hands up to show he wasn’t holding anything.

Gadget’s expression calmed a tiny bit, but his stance became slightly more defensive at the same time.

“I saw what happened. He most likely requires medical assistance, right?”

The wolf’s eyes darted to Infinite’s form for a moment, then back up to meet Espio’s gaze. He nodded slowly, definitely afraid. Like he had been caught doing something extremely wrong, and… maybe it was wrong. But Gadget had good judgement, usually, and Espio couldn’t make a decision for him without knowing the details first.

“The base is a bit far from here, anyway, not to mention how dangerous that would be,” the chameleon pointed his tail in the direction of Infinite’s body,” May I?”

Gadget softly whined, followed by a quiet whimper, but stepped aside.

[How much did you see?]

“I was out on a walk, needed to clear my head a bit, and I was about to get to my meditation spot out here, then I heard you two running around. I only saw the part where you two were tangled up in the tree,” Espio replied as he kneeled next to the unconscious canine. He pressed two fingers to Infinite’s chest, right between the two Ruby shards that stuck out of his white fur. After closing his eyes for a moment, and what looked like the shards glowing the tiniest bit, he stood up again and returned his gaze to the anxiously waiting wolf.

“As far as any injuries beyond... well, that,” Espio said, pointing at the Ruby’s shards,” he seems to be pretty much okay. The fall most likely just knocked him unconscious. A few bruises, probably, and whatever those pieces of the Ruby are doing to him, but he should be fine. I think... maybe Silver could help him with the Ruby. I feel his aura has fused with them, and they are what has kept him alive for so long. But they are also dangerous, in that configuration, and could puncture his heart if not dealt with, somehow. I don’t exactly know how to walk the delicate balance between the two. That’s why we should..”

It wouldn’t be easy to ask him. Silver was mad at him, upset at everyone and everything, honestly. But you do what you have to do to get things done.

Gadget whimpered quietly again, and Espio made up his mind completely at that moment. He was tired and didn’t have the energy to deal with his boyfriend being difficult, so he wouldn’t make it a question when the time came.

“Silver can probably help him. Is that okay?” the chameleon repeated, forcing himself to stay calm.

The wolf was now sadly staring at Infinite, not showing any real sign of agreement or disagreement. He sat on the ground next to the jackal and finally looked up at Espio. His ear twitched the slightest bit, and the chameleon knew that was his answer.

“I want him back,” Gadget said, voice cracking halfway through. Espio didn’t visibly acknowledge that he had spoken (it was really serious, given that the wolf never spoke, not to mention what that sentence even meant). Gadget made another soft noise, reaching over to take Infinite’s hand. He then sat silently, holding the other’s hand in his, watching the wind blow through the leaves of the trees around them.

The chameleon nodded, walking a short distance away from them before pulling out his phone to call Silver.

“Hello?” Silver's voice was slightly strained, but a bit better than it had been earlier that evening.

Espio took a breath to compose himself before speaking,” Hello, Silver. I’m really sorry to bother you again so soon, I know you need your time alone, and I left so you could have that, but there’s a situation that really requires your attention. I would ask Venus, but Chaos knows where he could be right now.”

“What... What kind of help?”

“Something that your powers can do... hopefully... I’m in Mystic Jungle. I’ll send you my coordinates.”

“Es... Please....”Silver sounded miserable, and it only broke the chameleon’s heart more to know the coming situation would not end well. If he could at least keep Silver calm until they were finished helping, that would be enough for now. If he could keep himself calm, even better.

“Please, Silver. I know you’re upset, but this is important.”

“.........Okay...”

Ten minutes later, in a blaze of glowing cyan light, Silver landed in the small clearing. He definitely seemed to have calmed down a lot, but Espio could still see the lingering look in his eyes. Oh boy, here goes.

“What’s...” the hedgehog started to ask, but trailed off when he saw the two canines.

“Oh..... What happened?”

Gadget shook his head, and Espio knew that meant not to tell, yet, at least. If he didn’t have to explain, he wouldn’t. Gadget probably would have never told anyone if he could have gotten away with it.

“Accident. He needs help.”

“Gadget looks fine-“

Espio sighed. Silver was being difficult just to be difficult. He wasn’t that stupid.

“Infinite. The Phantom Ruby left shards in his chest, and it’s now both keeping him alive and risking killing him at any moment.”

Silver’s eyes narrowed the tiniest bit.

“Es, this is against everything I’ve ever fought for. Literally everything, not just the war. You saw what he did to the world in just a year. Imagine what that would have done to the future had it continued. We just talked about-”

“Silver. We will discuss this later. But you know as well as I do that your morals would not allow you to leave someone to die like this. Regardless of your opinion, I’m not letting him die like this, and that requires you to cooperate,”Espio replied with more than a hint of anger. 

Silver opened his mouth to argue, then turned away for a moment and hissed something under his breath. 

Something along the lines of “Just like always.”

Espio wasn’t quite sure what that meant in this context, but he had no time to argue.

Silver glared at the ground for several seconds before turning back to look at him. The pained look in his eyes was enough to tell him everything he needed to know. He already knew everything the hedgehog would have had to say to him, anyway, or so he thought.

“Fine. I’ll see what I can do. But do not think I’m happy about this.”

Espio went over to the corner to meditate, like he had intended to do in the first place. He wasn’t doing a good job, given how out of control his own emotions were, compared to normal, but that wasn’t the point. 

Gadget had taken some convincing to leave Infinite’s side, but eventually complied. He was now staring off into the distance with tears in his eyes.

Silver had been poking around at the shards for several minutes, trying to see what to do. He couldn’t remove them, that would probably kill the jackal. But if he left them there, that would kill him too. Maybe he could get away with doing nothing if it was “too risky”.

No. He had to…

He touched one of the shards lightly, his palm glowing as he activated his powers. As soon as his powers made contact with the ruby, it lit up and he was forcibly thrown backwards.

Infinite shot up suddenly into a sitting position, going into a coughing fit almost instantly. 

Quicker than any of them could react, Gadget threw himself at Infinite, wrapping his arms around him, his silent crying turning to ragged sobs. Silver had managed to catch himself in mid air, so he now hovered a bit above the ground, trying to figure out exactly what just happened.

“I suppose this is the part where drama ensues because no one listens to one another,” Infinite said, eyeing them warily.

Gadget seemed to hug him tighter at the comment, for whatever reason.

“What... was that?” Silver asked after a few seconds.

“I do not wish to share what happened on my end during that period of unconsciousness, thank you. However, I will ask what you, hedgehog, did to me, in that time? I recognized your aura for a moment, I believe...?”

“I didn’t.... I mean, yes, but... all I did was..” Silver had no idea what had happened in the split second he had touched the Ruby, but clearly A LOT was different than he had thought. There were now a couple of canines that had some serious explaining to do.

“You made contact with the Ruby while using your powers, right?” Espio cut in, seeing where the conversation was about to go. He walked over to where Silver was hovering and gently pulled on his arm, leading the hedgehog to land next to him. He took Silver’s hand, both to try to reassure him and to keep him from moving (it wouldn’t stop him, but it was a warning.)

“Yeah... I hardly even touched it and the air just... exploded.”

“You have psychic powers. That must have reacted with the Ruby’s power.”

Use reason and logic. Emotions can wait. That’s how to get through this.

“Perhaps I underestimated your abilities when we first met. You are much stronger than I previously assumed. I believe your powers did in fact react to my own, and it gave me that moment of clarity required to break free.” Infinite said, gently tapping two fingers along Gadget’s back. Silver didn’t like how… casual… they were. Like nothing had ever happened. It felt like Infinite was mocking him, deliberately choosing to get close with Gadget of all mobians.

That fact was not just why he was pissed about this whole thing, but why he chose to comply. He cared about Gadget a lot, and it was kind of salt in the wound to Espio dragging him here. This whole situation sucked, and it was only fueling his anger.

“Is your chest okay though? That was kinda the goal here, apparently.” Silver looked between the two of them, earning a soft hiss from Infinite that Gadget apparently didn’t hear.

Infinite then gently nudged Gadget away from his chest, allowing him to cling to his arm instead. He looked back at the other two mobians, as if expecting them to understand. 

“You tell me. Does this look fine?”

The red shards that had previously been sticking out at all angles were now in a very deliberate pattern, lying almost completely flat against his chest. Three pieces were almost completely under his white fluff, one sticking out on the right and left sides, one facing down in the center, while the other two stuck up and out of the fur. All together, it formed an upside down star.

Espio instantly knew what it meant, as did Silver, but it looked like the hedgehog would rather shove a broom down his throat than admit it.

Gadget actually sat up a bit to look at him too, finally realizing that the Ruby was different than before. He squeaked, tilting his head, then reached out to gently touch one of the shards. Why he was so… calm.. about being so close to Infinite, Silver had absolutely no idea. The jackal had murdered hundreds, even thousands of people, tortured Sonic for months, and here Gadget was, HUGGING him.

Silver and Espio shared a glance before the chameleon very deliberately cleared his throat, causing Gadget to yelp and jump back, startled, and most likely realizing what he was doing,”Well, if you insist you are okay, then I suppose we could leave you to find your own way home. It is getting late, after all.”

“Hm. Yes. Your assistance is appreciated, but I’m sure we will manage.” Infinite met Espio’s gaze with a look of something between contempt and appreciation. The jackal’s ear twitched slightly, and the chameleon nodded his head the tiniest bit. Neither Gadget or Silver noticed the small interaction/agreement to keep from starting another war right then and there.

Espio blinked before giving a proper nod, then tugged on Silver’s arm again to lead him away. The hedgehog’s gaze lingered on the pair of canines for a few seconds, his eyes still full of anger, and maybe a bit of sorrow, but he followed the chameleon without saying anything else.


	2. Love & War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silver finally opens up about the truth of his future, and finds out about Espio's past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi my emotions hurt im going to go curl into a ball and melt now

Once out of sight and hearing range of the two canines, Silver pulled his arm away from Espio’s grasp and stormed off in silence. Espio didn’t move to immediately run after him, but he did follow more slowly after a few seconds. Silver had to be extremely angry at him to avoid him for long. And this wasn’t Espio’s fault, technically, so he should have been fine.

He wasn’t.

“Of course you would follow me. For what? An apology? For that? You knew what you were doing and yet you still brought me here.” Silver didn’t turn to look at Espio as he caught up to him.

“You did that for Gadget’s sake too, and you know it.”

“I’m gonna… have a word with him later. If I ever talk to him again. I can’t believe he would do that to me. Of all mobians…” Silver said, mostly to himself. Espio figured he was talking about Gadget, but Silver really could have been referring to either of them. 

“Silver… please… let’s just go home. Let Gadget deal with… him. He’s taken care of himself for a while dealing with him, guessing by how he’s been acting recently.”

Silver gave a half nod, then shrugged and started walking again. They stayed like that for several hours, for some reason not bothering to go any faster (Silver certainly could have taken off at any time.) After a little while, Espio reached over and took Silver’s hand again, getting only a half glare, but no attempt to push him off. Usually the pale grey hedgehog would have said something by now, even an apology, fake or not, but he hadn’t. They had just been silent. It was almost too awkward. Both of them were used to comfortable silence, sure, but this was starting to be a bit too much. Despite this, they continued on, both ignoring the near painful tension in the air.

As they neared the edge of the city, Silver suddenly stopped walking, staring at the ground. His expression contorted into something between rage and bitterness with a bit of betrayed sadness.

“What else is everyone hiding? Hahahaha, what’s next, Venus revived some ancient god or something and won’t tell us? I’m so sick of this, Es. No matter how hard I work, nothing changes. The future is always ruined, and I’ve only lost the life I had in my time just trying to save it. There’s nothing left for me there… And I’ve almost lost everything here. I’m sick of it. Absolutely. Sick.”

Everything he had ever done was either for his own basic, required survival, or making everything better for everyone else. As long as he saved the world, he was doing his job right. No matter the cost…

He didn’t remember promising that to himself.

But he kept his promises, no matter what.

Had he really been keeping them?

“It’s selfish of me, to expect different, isn’t it? Since I can remember, it’s been the same. Anarchy and war. Death and chaos. It doesn’t matter. Here and there. Now and in the future. At least they don’t know they need me anymore.”

“What are you talking about? Selfish to expect what? And who doesn’t know?”

Apparently Silver chose that moment to totally lose his temper, “The future, Es. My friends, my family. I lost EVERYTHING to come here. Not even just to STAY, I lost it the first time I showed up….Save the world at any cost, they said. I did. Several times…. And the universe gave me a war in return. A war to only lose so much of what I might have gained here. Everything is the same. I haven’t been to check on my time in a year, do you know why, Es? It’s not just because I wanted to move here, no. It’s not just because of the war. I’m avoiding going home. I thought maybe I could just stay this time so it wouldn’t hurt anymore. It still hurts…”

Silver paused for a moment to breathe, rubbing his eyes until the tears had cleared enough for him to see at least semi-clearly,“ I know it doesn’t matter what I do here, because they will NEVER remember me. I can go back , sure, and we can all pretend, but my mother has to be told that she has a son every time I show up. EVERY. TIME. I don’t even visit my friends anymore. I only bother to visit my parents because the one thing my mother gave me has bonded to my own existence outside of the time flow.”

“Time.. fl- what now?”

Silver sighed, then tried to explain,“I’m not like normal people, Es. I don’t exist in one timeline or another. Because I’ve traveled so much, I don’t exist in the flow of time like everyone else does. It means I can’t accidentally undo my own birth or something like that, so I’ll always be here… I mean, I can still die of course, but it would be just like normal, now or in the future. But what does happen is that any memories associated with me from the future are erased…. I never go back to any further than this present day right now because if I did, I could ruin this too. My friends and family are all still… alive.. of course… but my friends are long past the possibility of recovery, and all my parents … sort of.. know is that they do have a son, but only when that son comes to visit, and Mom sees the locket she gave me. That’s the only memory trigger they have. Dad doesn’t really remember it either… it’s mostly just me and Mom when I’m there. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to see your parents, and have them threaten you at the door, to not remember you every time you meet, to just be alone in this world?!”

Silver’s voice had steadily risen since he started talking, and now he was somewhere between yelling and sobbing hysterically, half collapsing onto the ground. Espio sort of tried to comfort him, but he almost violently shoved him away.

“Don’t. I don’t want the pity.”

Silver sat down finally, after giving up on trying to keep himself upright. He buried his head in his arms,” I’m tired of being alone, but it’s all the same. And it’s all my fault..”

After several minutes of silence, he finally glanced up to see Espio still standing next to him, but his eyes were closed, arms crossed. He looked… angry? That… never happened.

“Do you think I don’t understand what it’s like to be alone, Silver?” His tone was almost disturbingly level, but edging on turning into that of a hiss,” I ran away from my family. I never told anyone besides Vector. I haven’t had a blood related family since I was a child. I met Vector the one day I ran off, just looking to see what was out there in the world… and…her-“

Espio paused and cleared his throat, deliberately changing the subject back to Vector from whoever else he was talking about, but his tone was now growing noticeably more bitter and angry as he spoke,”… He was the first friend I had outside of … everyone I had ever known since birth. I was DISOWNED for that, Silver. I can’t even go back and see my family now because I chose my team over my family. Do you think that I don’t ever regret that? Before I left, I was told who I would marry, I knew that since the day I was born. She was a nice girl, and I enjoyed her company, sure, but I was never into girls. You know that part at least. I ran from responsibilities once, and destroyed everything I had. That girl was from one of the other wealthy families in the area. I could have ruled half of the continent with her. But I ran. They called me a coward. Do you think I’m so disciplined because I just randomly felt like it. Weakness was never an option for me…. But Vector didn’t care…. So I stayed with my new friends, the ones who really won’t care if I have a boyfriend, won’t care who I marry, and will just let me be happy. I never told Vector and Charmy about us because the last time I talked about love was when I asked what would happen if I didn’t want to marry a girl, and I remember I was threatened. They threatened a FIVE year old. It’s one of the few fears that has stuck with me all this time. So yes, Silver, I would say understand. Maybe not to be completely forgotten, but I’m sure they all don’t want to remember me.”

Silver had stopped crying for a moment, and was now staring up at him, eyes wide.

“You… you…”

“And now, for months, I’ve been listening to this in silence, hoping, ONE DAY, you might wake up and remember that I have a lot more patience than most people. I want you to be happy Silver, and I would do just about anything to make that happen, but you’ve been practically ignoring that I’m willing to do that. Have some sense of self preservation, will you? I’ve waited two years for the chance to see you every day without the world in pieces, and yes, I understand the world is important, but… I would have thought I was part of that. You stay up half the night, you hardly spend time with me, it’s just as if you were back in your own time, except now I have to sit and watch, rather than blindly hope you come back one day.”

He had to pause again and take a breath, giving up on keeping calm, “Maybe I should have just let Infinite die. That would do a whole lot for you and Gadget, knowing you could have saved him, but didn’t. I’m starting to wonder if you care more about him than me… Three months now, its all been about ‘what’s Gadget’s hiding?, I hope he’s okay, Why won’t Gadget tell me what’s going on?’ but not once have you asked me how I’m doing, even causally, unless it was related to a mission I had just returned from.”

“Of course I care, Es, I just-” Silver tried to defend himself, but Espio but him off again. The chameleon had started down a trail of venting all his frustrations, and he knew he would say some things he would regret, but in that moment, he didn’t care. He was boiling with frustration, and Gadget’s little problem has been the final straw for both of them, it seemed.

“Tell the whole Resistance what we had, Silver, I don’t care. Figure out your shit with Gadget, I’m going home. My home. Don’t follow me. Goodnight.”

And with that, he left.


	3. About Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silver reflects on the current situation and decides to finally do something about Infinite. Luckily, the perfect opportunity arises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my brain hurts ,,,

They had promised that they would always be there for each other.

And now it was all gone.

Silver knew what the words meant, even without the “Don’t follow me.” He was going home. Alone. The Chaotix house was only home to three, just as it always had been.

He wouldn’t be welcome there. Not after… that, even if Vector and Charmy said he was. He didn’t want to be there either. It would hurt too much.

Venus had refused to let him stay at his place since the war had started, for a reason he wouldn’t tell. Now he really had no place to go. Just like before…

Logically, he would return to the Resistance base and continue as he had been doing for months now… since there really wasn’t anything else to do. He needed to talk to Gadget of course, but he knew that the red canine would avoid him even more now that he knew about Infinite.

Speaking of Infinite… He needed to have a word with that damn jackal too, since he didn’t fully trust that Gadget wasn’t under some kind of illusion. It was too… perfect, like a switch had been flipped.

Then again… Espio had never done what he just did… like a switch flipping… so maybe it was Silver’s lack of attention rather than anything else. No matter, he had all the time now to monitor that situation if he wasn’t trying to secretly maintain a relationship with Espio anymore.

Ouch. It was only starting to kick in now how much that hurt.

But… it was okay, right? He would make it. He always did. If he could just relax now, knowing there was nothing for him to hide, he would hopefully be a bit calmer. Unless Infinite was up to something, which he was still pretty convinced was the case.

A few more months had passed, and Silver never got around to asking Gadget about Infinite. The wolf always managed to slip away when the subject came up, just like he had guessed he would, and now only seemed to come to the base when he absolutely had to. He avoided interacting with anyone, including (and especially) Silver himself.

That made Silver’s mindset even worse. It had just been something natural, to finally feel like he had grown up, to be a role model to someone more afraid, more naive than him (even if they were the same age.) He felt like he had to protect Gadget, and opted to keep him on less dangerous missions. At first, Gadget had been fine with that too, even seemingly wanting it more than Silver did. Then… he just… changed. Silver figured it was Sonic rubbing off on him, being almost too bold in battle, nearly fighting more than he could handle. He wanted more risky missions, more dangerous tasks, whatever he could do to prove himself.

It felt a bit like a he was little brother that suddenly wasn’t a child anymore, and had his own life. Silver’s turn to be the older brother was over, and he missed it. He never got to be a brother to anyone before… never had much of a family, not since...

....

Sigh.

He had also never told another person that he loved them, aside from his family. His family that didn’t know he loved them. Espio didn’t know it either. Or maybe he did, but he certainly didn’t believe it anymore.

Ugh. Why did he have to bend just to make Gadget’s perfect story come true?

Whatever that story even was. Infinite was supposed to be dead. But he wasn’t. If he had just gone away, they wouldn’t be here like this now. Silver would’ve had time for Espio again. Gadget could take care of himself, he knew, but when that cursed jackal was still alive, and apparently spending all his time with Gadget, that was a bit less than trustworthy.

If only he could get to him alone… Gadget would never tell the truth, especially if he was under an illusion. But Infinite might tell him something if they were alone. He saved that stupid canine’s life, for the love of Chaos, but he could only hope that meant something to him.

At the six month mark, the chance came. While Sonic was still galavanting around with Jet (what’s up with those two, anyway?), Venus and Rouge were off orchestrating that whole thing. Espio had refused to show his face around the base since the last fight they had, though Vector and Charmy still came from time to time, but didn’t talk about him much. Shadow was… somewhere, doing whatever he does when he’s off by himself (that was to be expected, at least). From the core group (AKA, the ones in charge), that left Knuckles, Amy, Tails, Silver himself, and occasionally the others that showed up every once in a while. There were an array of lesser known soldiers around, of course, but they couldn’t all be everywhere at once.

And since Knuckles didn’t allow anyone to go outside of Sunset Heights without taking someone with them, Silver had the perfect opportunity to get what he wanted. Tails had received a call from Wave about the delayed construction of the Extreme Gear tracks and stands in Metropolis, and wanted the two tailed fox’s help with some of the problems (it was a lot of “super smart tech things that none of us would understand,” according to Knuckles.)

Gadget had just come in for a while, and Silver mentioned that maybe the red wolf should go with the fox, reason for not going himself being “I need to keep track of things here, since there’s even less people than usual around. Nothing will get done if Knuckles is the only one left to run the place.”

Fair enough.

Now came the second part, dealing with Infinite. As he made his way to the wolf’s house (Totally not following Tails there, noooooooo-), his thoughts drifted back to Espio again. He missed the chameleon far more than he had been willing to admit, and still never told anyone why. It only upset him to think about it now, so he tried to pretend it didn’t exist at all.

He waited outside for a bit, watching the Tornado disappear into the clouds, waiting for them to be far enough away that he could do this without being caught. It ended up being a lot longer than he thought, as he let himself get wrapped up in his anger all over again.

Deep down, he knew it was his fault Espio left, but he was so angry with… himself… everything, really, that he wanted anything but admission that he had fucked up. He wanted to be selfish. Even blaming Infinite, when he still had no idea how the jackal was even alive, or what reason Gadget had for taking care of him.

No, he knew. It was that stupid rock. Of course.

He felt bad about manipulating Gadget to get him to go with Tails, but to be fair, Infinite had done it first, probably.

Speaking of which... enough waiting. Time to actually deal with this.


	4. Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silver confronts Infinite about the ongoing situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look it's this scene from Redemption but with Silver's POV,,
> 
> the stories will branch out a bit again next chapter, and even more so in the one after that (it'll come back together for a few chapters here and there but that's later). Yes the chapters are slowly getting shorter, I'm dividing this one up more by scenes than word count.

He hadn’t noticed he was crying before he entered, but apparently he was, and Infinite had noticed it too. Great. Good way to start a conversation.

At least the jackal had enough sense to keep quiet about it, and also to not ask how he had gotten into Gadget’s house in the first place. (It was legal, probably.)

“Alright, look, I don’t know what little games you had to play to make Gadget like you so much, but I don’t trust you. There is no way you could have changed that quickly. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have him under an illusion or something.” 

It was a bit ironic, given he had tried to fight most of Sonic’s friends when he first went to the past, only to so quickly become friends with them, but that wasn’t something that he had to tell the jackal.

Infinite didn’t move from his place on the couch among a pile of blankets and pillows, not even turning to look at him.

“You sent him to go with the fox boy, didn’t you? Just to get me alone?” The jackal hissed, narrowing his eyes. He looked like he was considering clawing Silver’s face off right then and there, but he remained unmoving from his position, still glaring at the wall.

“It’s my job to protect the Resistance soldiers and my friends. Gadget is my friend. You are a war criminal. Give me a reason to change my mind.” Silver snapped, then muttered something else under his breath,” Not like I believe you would know what friends are, you said it yourself, that they are an illusion, didn’t you?”

“You have to give me the chance to show you that. We will never move forward if you don’t.” Infinite’s voice was eerily calm, yet still held a mocking edge to it, like a challenge.

“Do you think you deserve that chance?”

The jackal’s gaze cut sharply up to meet Silver’s, almost unreadable cold venom reflected in his dual color irises. Anger, of course, but not the usual kind he would have expected from a crazed anarchist who only wanted destruction. Almost like Espio had looked at him on their last day together, angry and disappointed; deeming him unworthy of his time. It was a bit insulting, to be honest.

His answer was pretty much what Silver was expecting.

“No,” Infinite’s tail flicked, as if to casually dismiss the question, but his eyes still held that look,” But Gadget does. And I want to prove to him that I can follow through with that chance. You would be lying to say you don’t believe in second chances, if I am correct in my judgement of your character.”

Oh, what he would give for a second chance with Espio.

Silver clenched his fists, rising a few inches off the ground, but the jackal held up a hand to stop him from speaking.

“You know I am right. You saved my life in the jungle. You wouldn’t destroy your relationship with Gadget just to get at me, would you? Just as much as I will not destroy what I have with him to fight with you. There is a lot more to this situation than you are aware of, and th-“

Oh, really. He hadn’t noticed.

“Who says I haven’t been through a lot either?” Silver snapped, hearing his voice cracking with emotion as he interrupted. He ignored it, and hoped Infinite would do the same.

“I didn’t say that. You have your own demons,” Infinite paused for a moment, taking note of Silver’s reaction to his wording (why did that in particular upset him? He didn’t know either.) A beat of silence passed before he continued,”… just as I have mine, and Gadget has his. Understand this, I will not intrude on your base unless you let me, but I may need access to some of your tech in order to accomplish what I plan to do in this time. If you allow me to do this, I believe I can prove myself to you and everyone else.”

“Tails just left and you expect me to give you tech without any supervision?”

Infinite rolled his eyes,” If you insist on having someone ‘babysit’ me, so be it, so long as they are willing to help me.”

Even though he seemed to be just fine with someone keeping an eye on him, it was a lose lose situation. He would either end up stealing something behind their backs or convincing them to help. Better to at least have a witness, he supposed. 

Silver glared at him, but an idea was starting to come to him. Maybe he could do something about this.

Part of why this whole mess had happened to begin with was because Venus had convinced Sonic and Jet to run off together, but that of course meant a certain pink hedgehog couldn’t know about why they had left. Other than “rivalry things”, Amy had no idea what was going on, per the request of Venus to “keep the plan from being sabotaged”. Even if it resulted in an argument later, he was supposed to keep her from knowing, and this was an opportunity to do exactly that. A distraction. 

Plus, she would not hesitate to crush the jackal under her hammer if he made her angry, so that would work well, he hoped.

“I can’t say she’ll be happy with it, but I know someone who can keep an eye on you. She will beat you into the dirt if you step out of line at all, though, just a fair warning.”


End file.
